When Even Viral Can’t Help: The Moon Oscar Story

OK, so maybe that title is better reserved for AFTER the Academy Award nominations are announced in a month (February 2nd), but the outcome seems inevitable, or is it? For those unaware of the independent film Moon that was released this summer in limited release, its a film directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie’s son), and starring Sam Rockwell. Rockwell’s character Sam (very original) is near the end of his three year solo lunar mission, and some strange things start to happen. Rockwell’s great performance as basically the only guy on camera in the film is very reminiscent of Will Smith’s in I Am Legend. So, it makes sense that fans (and many crew members) of the movie have been pushing for Rockwell to get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. There’s just one tiny problem, expressed nicely by Alex at Firstshowing:

Jones wrote a few short tweets expressing his dissatisfaction with the way Sony Pictures Classics (the US distributor of Moon) is handling the Oscar campaign (or lack thereof) for Moon. Most notably, they never sent out screeners of the movie to Academy members, which has pretty much killed its Oscar chances.

Why not, you ask? Well, apparently it was too expensive. The DVD doesn’t release until January 12th, so Sony Pictures Classics would have had to make special watermarked copies, and heavens forbid they bother doing that. So, it looks like SPC is not going to launch any Oscar campaign for Moon and instead focus on its other, yet arguably not as good, films like An Education, Un Prophete, and The White Ribbon. A lot of fans and bloggers are upset over the decision, and many even give Sony Pictures Classics a few options on how to screen the movie while saving money, but the real question is, what can the fans do?

Luckily, there are few options. First of all, there is an online petition you can sign for Rockwell to be nominated. There are currently just under 3,000 signatures, so go ahead and add yours. The petition isn’t affiliated with the Academy, SPC, or anyone else of importance, but you never know. The more attention the film gets, the better. Also, as Peter at Slashfilm mentions:

Well, signing that petition won’t hurt; telling people about the film won’t hurt either; better still, blogging, tweeting and Facebooking about Sony’s decision to not issue screeners would keep the issue in people’s minds and might just carry the campaign to critical mass.

So, get out there (in real life and the Internet) and talk about the movie, and maybe we can make a difference! (Cue inspirational music now). Make sure to start ASAP, as the nominations are due in by January 23rd. If you want to see Moon now, you can order the Blu-Ray from the Amazon UK store. Otherwise, you can pre-order the DVD or Blu-rayon Amazon.